Quick report
Where and when traveled today may become the definition for a "locked up" snowpack. Clear nights have set sunny aspects into a consistent freeze -thaw cycle resulting in very firm, even icy, conditions in the morning with a bit of softening in the afternoon. Shaded slopes at middle and upper elevations remain cold and dry. While a recent inch or snow of new snow certainly helped, westerly winds created a patchwork of deeper drifts, scoured slopes, and textured surfaces. Whether on the north or south side of the compass dial, avalanches seemed unlikely.
No cracking or collapsingWeather
- Cloud Cover
- clear
- Wind Loading
- previous
- Snow Avail For Transport
- small smounts
What a gorgeous day up the Teanaway area! While it was very chilly at the trailhead in the morning, temperatures quickly warmed. Or at least felt warm. When we would stop, we often quickly put on a jacket, even in the sun. Near the pass winds were generally light (but noticeable) out of the W. We didn't see any actively blowing snow.
Snowpack
It's March and not surprisingly the snowpack has become very aspect dependent.
Southerly: Clear skies Wednesday night allowed any snow that softened to freeze solid, and we do mean solid! A very firm, sometimes icy, and generally smooth surface was found on any slope that receives direct sunshine. This made for very difficult travel. A slip could easily turn into a long uncontrolled slide. We found steep due south slopes had softend just a bit by around 1130am, but nearly every other slope stayed icy.
We saw a few rollerballs from Wednesday, but the only wet loose slides looked older and were confined to very rocky/cliffy terrain.
Northerly: An inch or so of recent snow was found on shaded slopes above about 5000ft. The wind had drifted this snow into small deeper pockets and left plenty of textured surfaces. This made it challenging to get an exact storm total. Sometimes these wind drifted pillows sat over a firm surface or breakable crust. In other locations, generally soft and dry snow was found underneath the most recent inch.
Lower Elevations: The snowpack remains thin and variable at lower elevations. Even though warm temperatures and sunshine help the snow soften during the day, clear nights made for very firm (fully snowmobile supportable) and even icy conditions in the morning. Creeks remain open and are flowing reasonably high and fast with all the snow melt.
Avalanche
We found a very recent but super small little wind slab about the size of a kitchen table that failed naturally. The more notable avalanches we saw were in The Funnel, on Mt Stuart, and on the backside of Long's Pass into Ingalls Creek all likely released during the recent atmospheric river. It was hard to tell if they were wet loose or wet slabs, but they generally ranged from D2-D2.5 in size.